Capacitive sensing technology has changed the way we interact with devices. We no longer use simple pushbuttons or throw switches. Rather, we can touch, slide, and pinch the data itself on a touchscreen to interact with it. The far-off interfaces of the movies are not such science fiction anymore. In fact, they are already being adapted and designed into a variety of applications, including our cars.
Multi-touch all-point sensing is an extension of capacitive sensing that has made it possible for touch technology to become much more intuitive by sensing the presence of multiple fingers simultaneously and being able to recognize gestures. At the heart, any multi-touch all-point system is a capacitive sensor composed of a pair of adjacent electrodes. When a conductive object such as a finger comes in proximity to these electrodes, there is additional capacitance between the electrodes that can be measured with the help of a microcontroller. Alternately, capacitive sensing can also be used for proximity sensing where no contact is required between the sensor and the user’s body. This can be achieved by increasing the sensitivity of the sensors.
Types of Touchscreen Layers
Capacitive sensing is increasingly being used to replace mechanical buttons, knobs with touch-sensitive buttons, and sliders for in-car systems like infotainment controls, trunk release, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning control (HVAC), and Passive Keyless Entry sensors (PKE). The consequent reduction in the number of mechanical components and grooves (which require more complex molds, trap dust, etc.) enhances reliability and reduce system costs.
Touchscreens and trackpads
Touchscreens enable users to directly “touch” the application in a device, thus reducing the dependence on external buttons. Similarly in a trackpad, users can interact with the system using instinctive actions and gestures like touching, tapping, pinching, and dragging. Touchscreens come in one of three main forms: single-touch, multi-touch gesture, and multi-touch all-point.
Single-touch touchscreens were predominantly based on resistive touchscreen technology, locating both the screen and buttons within the same area. The limitations of resistive single-touch touchscreens are the ability to detect only one finger per screen at a time, limited gesture recognition capabilities, and poor performance due to wear-and-tear of the sensors.
These limitations led to the development of projected capacitance technology and multi-touch gesture touchscreens based on it. Multi-touch gesture touchscreens do not depend on pressure to detect user interaction. They are also able to support simultaneous multi-touch recognition and tracking along with gesture detection used to manipulate screen viewing size and orientation of Web page views.
Without tactile feedback, the touchscreen becomes a point that requires the driver to shift his eyes off of the road and onto the screen. The touchscreens for infotainment is good and certainly adds a clean factor to it. But I find that the need to access heater controls (like trying to activate the front defrost), can be quite distracting and even a safety hazard. Nothing like a knob that I can grasp and turn while I continue to watch the road ahead.
I agree GTOlover. Even something as simple as changing radio station. I've got an old car and can control all the main functions solely by feel. You know approximately where the buttons and knobs are and if your aim is off by a quarter inch you immediately adjust without even thinking about what you're doing. If you have a flat panel, you have no clue where you are so you have to look.
I whole heartedly agree - as soon as I saw the title to this article I was thinking about the nightmare I have with the touchscreen on my cell phone and how frequently I "mistouch" the screen even when looking at it. While the technology itself is ideal in some venues - I just don't see it as feasible for an automotive environment. I too vote for knobs that I can feel in order to operate automotive controls...
Voice control is still the safest manual driver "advanced" interface.
If the touchscreens could have some tactile feedback and operate exactly like manual controls, people will still look off at their touchscreens, wherever they are placed. I remember reading about some screens that could create custom raided-surfaces on touchscreens. Could that be the real answer?
The real way to go is driverless cars. Google is getting closer to something useful. Several car companies have auto park systems. Others are branching into automated controls as well. After this trend comes to full maturity, we can have all the touchscreens we want in the car... Not driving will leave us all bored.
Add me to the list of people that think this is a bad idea. It's so easy to reach down and give a knob a couple of clicks, rather than navigating a menu.
I agree with James. Voice is possibly the only viable option for cars until they drive themselves.
Alternatively, a "smart system" could figure out what you want to do and offer suggestions. Like, learning your driving pattern, locations, etc. A low level A.I. would be needed, so that might be a long way off too.
Good idea but I think it would have to be a pretty sophisticated voice control system - I can see lots of variables that would need to be addressed. Not sure I would want "suggestions" either - that lady in my GPS can get quite annoying! I think common sense would go a long way in providing a safe ride without all of the electronic gadgetry that often distracts more than it helps but unfortunately that doesn't come factory installed...like a touch screen can.
The use of touchscreens in manufacturing should be an interesting evolution to follow over the next couple years. Clearly these user interfaces offer key advantages and more visual presentations. It will be interesting to see how users adjust to learning new techniques to viewing information, even in terms of selecting laptops versus tablets for general computing.
I agree that the touch screen on an automotive dashboard can be a serious distraction. Tactile feel and a memoty of where things are on a dashboard is much safer. It doesn't take your eyes off teh road or require distracting you from driving. We can bemoan these thoughts all we want. They will really be brought into focus with a huge lawsuit claiming damages for what we have been discussing.
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